Recently I have been asked more frequently than usual about what it takes to become a member of the DB Tribe and to become a Dog Brother. This, from the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on our website:

Although many of the Dog Brothers have come out of DBMA or DBMA instructors, this is NOT necessary in order to become a Dog Brother. If you wish to become a Dog Brother, fight at some of the Gatherings, let the Brothers get to know you, and find someone in the group to present your name to one of the Marc “Crafty Dog“ Denny or Benjamin “Lonely Dog” Rittiner” – and he will take it from there.

The first level is “Dog” one is accepted into the tribe. The next level is “Candidate Dog Brother”. At this point, one is showing the level of realization in fighting that we expect of a “Dog Brother”. A name is tentatively given. Typically, we look for this level to be maintained for at least three Gatherings. Then one reaches the grand exalted status of “Dog Brother”.

becoming a dog brother has been on my MA bucket list for some time now. Just gonna have to figure out how to get to the the gathering. I consider the status of dog brother to easily be as significant as any belt ranking.

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

We are in the process of setting up a separate section of the site dedicated to the Dog Brothers Tribe. As part of this once again we will be offering autobiographies of each Dog Brother who writes one up for us.

Announcing a specific section of our website to serve as the official record of the Dog Brothers Tribe and as a place for Tribal discussions outside the glare of the internet. Go to www.dogbrothers.com and click on the button at the top that says “Tribe”.

Open to the general public are matters of record. At present this is limited to a listing of members of the Tribe. As time goes by we will develop listings of fighters at the various Gatherings, photo galleries, etc. We already have up what we hope is a rather complete listing of the Tribe. If you are a member of the Tribe, please take a look to see if you are properly listed. If not, please let me know at craftydog@dogbrothers.com

There is a forum limited to members of the Tribe, be they Dogs, Candidate Dog Brothers, or Dog Brothers.

There is a forum limited to Dog Brothers.

If you are a member of the Tribe, please email Cindy and me at info@dogbrothers.com and give us your full name and your Dog name (Dog John, John “Candidate Fido” Smith, John “Fido” Smith). Please take care of this at your earliest convenience. There are some matters of importance to discuss in-house.

Ryan "Guard Dog" Gruhn, whose techno talents exceed mine (and whose do not?) has graciously agreed to handle administrative matters such as registrations, passwords, and such. As time goes on and we get settled in a bit he will be helping out with posting pictures, video clips, and such.

There being minyan at the Tribal (Ten Dog Brothers) ascensions were held on the spot.

Rick Laue is now "Dr. Dog"Joe Nepomuceno is now "Crash Dog"Pete Juska is now "C-Smiling Dog"Peter Andrada is now "C-Dungeon Dog"Darrin Davis is now "C-to-be-named-later Dog"Aumauinuuese Puni is now "Dog Puni"Clint Taylor is now "Dog Clint"Lynn Ferri is now "Bitch Lynn"Katherine Andrea Waruszewski is now "Bitch Andrea"Robert Koenig is now "Dog Robert"Ryan Conner is now "Dog Ryan"Jerick Black is now "Dog Jerick"Josh Rogers is now "Dog Joshua"David Wang is now "Dog David"

1) After two weeks for commentary on the DB Tribal Forum it has been agreed that the “2014 Dog Brothers Tribal Gathering of the Pack” will be held on May 24-25. Note that this is Memorial Day weekend (for non-Americans please note that this means that Monday May 26 is a national holiday) which should facilitate travel home and boo-boo recovery time;2) There has been some additional discussion of the process for entry into the Tribe on the DB Tribal Forum;3) If you are not already registered for the DB Tribal forum, then email Guard Dog at ryan@dogbrothers.com and he will help you get squared away.

We’ve updated the tribe list! Please take a look at it and make sure everything is correct. Moreover, if you are a “Full Dog Brother” we would like to make sure we have the spelling of your name correctly. Please post back here or email ryan@dogbrothers.com if there is a discrepancy or your name is not listed and we’ll adjust the list accordingly!

We are coming out of hibernation after a long cold winter in Connecticut. It actually snowed yesterday!

The time off from teaching gave me the opportunity to dive back into regular yoga training. I used it as a chance to extract some movements that focus on lower back and hip rehabilitation/ maintenance, and combine them into an easy to follow progression for students to learn.

As usual, DBMA Connecticut will be focusing on Combining Foot and Stick Work, Double Stick, and Edged Weapons training this Spring. Classes will be starting up again this weekend.

From when there was still hope :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCoJjkTaoE

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Were celebrated this morning in Merate, in the parish church of Sant'Ambrogio, the funeral of Jacopo Nardi, a sports physician, holder blue and Italian vice-champion of savate and brown belt in brazilian jiu jitsu. In the family chapel, originally from Merate, was composed of the athlete's body, also the author of several publications of success, always in the field of sports medicine. He was 58 years old and was known in Italy as well as in Switzerland, where it had been between 1982 and 1983, one of the founders of Seagulls Lugano, first place team football. By lovers of this sport was known as "yesteryear" and "Samurai" for her competitive experience in martial arts. His profession took him to exercise at high levels, the national Italian boxing, kick-boxing, hockey. Despite all the commitments, he could carve out of parentheses to devote to volunteering, especially with the work of St. Francis of Milan. In the video report of the company Minimal Jacopo Nardi talks about "his" boys how did your passion for the sport and the martial arts in particular, by the mystery of the disease that had struck him and that he hoped to defeat.

This morning in the church of Sant'Ambrogio in many, relatives, friends, teammates and ring, they wanted to give him a final farewell.

These concerns still exist, but the context has changed over the decades and so, after consultation with the Council of Elders and with the Tribe (see the relevant threads on the Tribal Forum and feel free to contribute, for there are additional questions to be considered) we have decided to release TO THE TRIBE ONLY “Open Dog Brothers Gatherings of the Pack”. This includes the US Open, the Euro Open, and the Canadian Open. (Policy concerning the Tribal Gatherings is currently under discussion on one of the threads mentioned a moment ago.)

If you decide to purchase the download, in addition to the usual legal licensing agreement (home use only, etc) you will be considered as having given your word as a member of the Tribe. Breaking your word puts your membership in the Tribe in jeopardy. While we are confident that everyone will respect his/her word, but we want to be clear that we are quite serious about this for the concerns about the consequences of this footage going public remain. Well, enough of that!

We (Dog Brothers Inc.) look forward to making more Gatherings available as time goes by. So, why did we release the 2009 one first? Because it was the first one that came to hand The plan is to work in reverse chronological order, but to paraphrase the old saying, sometimes the first casualty of Life is the Plan!

Higher Consciousness through Harder Contact!Crafty DogGF

PS: If you are not yet registered for the Tribal forum, please email Ryan “Guard Dog” Gruhn at ryan@dogbrothers.com and he will take care of it.